…exactly how wrong this image is.

And if you ever had any doubts, Darth Vader really is a big bully…

Technorati Tags: humor

A thought from a world famous author:

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.
   —Robert A. Heinlein, writing as Lazarus Long

True, or not?

Is stupidity not a sin?

Can the victim of stupidity truly not help being stupid?

Can stupidity truly not be cured?

Is the sentence that we must accept for this “crime” death?

In the face of stupidity:

What is the moral obligation of the individual?

What is the moral obligation of society?

What is the moral obligation of the individual towards society?

What is moral obligation in the first place?

Is the universe merely the application of the law of the jungle, and any deviation from that state is temporary and therefore relieves us morally and ethically from acting in any way that is different from an attitude of “self-preservation comes first, foremost, and at the expense of all else”?

These are the fundamental questions that hurricane Katrina has thrust into our faces.

Perhaps, just perhaps, we should consider what our answers were before we saw those images on the television, what our answers are in the wake of the disaster, and we should also think about whether our answers changed and why.

Technorati Tags: fundamentals, human nature, hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, quotes

There is a lot being written on the rationale of President George W. Bush in nominating Harriet Miers for Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. However, I find the reaction by many on the right-wing more interesting than the futile attempts to divine any underlying motivations or machiavellian strategies President Bush and his evil genius, Karl Rove, may have.

I commented in an earlier post, “What to think? (an encore edition)” on the widespread (although not universal) negative reaction to this nomination, especially by those who are self-described members of “the base” courted by Bush and Rove for the 2004 election. The very breadth and strength of their reaction indicates that this group is no longer willing to give the President the benefit of the doubt when his actions are apparently not in accord with the values he proclaimed he would advance when in office.

Even though President Bush is essentially telling his supporters “trust me” on this nomination, despite the apparent lack of conservative bona fides of Ms. Miers, not to mention the more obvious dearth of judicial and legal credentials when she is compared to other potential nominees who have a strongly conservative paper trail, many on the right-wing are no longer willing to take on faith that the President will “do right by them.”

In other words, Bush has used up all his free passes, the “by’s” given by many of his most vocal supporters when he hasn’t followed the agenda of the right-wing.

In another recent post, I asked, “Who does the GOP represent?”

It appears that many Bush supporters are beginning to ask themselves that question about the President.

Technorati Tags: news, President Bush, President George W. Bush, right wing, right wing weblogs, right-wing, right-wing politics, right-wing weblogs, Supreme Court, Supreme Court nominees

This quote, “How do you like it now, gentlemen?” from Earnest Hemingway has been echoing in my mind for the past few days.

Random Fate has slowly crept past 100,000 unique visits (according to Site Meter, the other logs I have say I passed that mark weeks ago), a milestone reached by many within a few months of starting their weblogs, but for me has taken over two years, to be more precise - 31 months.

The quote, the question “How do you like it now, gentlemen?” resonates for reasons far beyond those promoted by James Wolcott in his series of posts that used this quote as the title.

For me, it reverberates far wider than does a mere, momentary political meaning.

It is an eternal question.

How do you like it now, gentlemen?

After seeing the results of your collective decisions…

How do you like it now, gentlemen?

After seeing how your life turned out as a result of your individual decisions…

How do you like it now, gentlemen?

After seeing how no matter how much you objected, no matter how many words you wrote upon a topic, the wrong path was taken to the regret of us all…

How do you like it now, gentlemen?
.
.
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I often wonder why I write this weblog.

I often wonder if it is merely vanity.

If it is, it is a poor sort of vanity, given how long it has taken for me to achieve the mark of 100,000 visits when so many others have achieved that milestone in a quarter of the time.

I haven’t even made enemies whom I have angered sufficiently into objecting to my writing consistently and vehemently enough to link to me repeatedly even for the purpose of vilifying me.

So, why do I spend the only unrecoverable in our lives, time, to write this weblog?

Damned if I know.

I very much doubt that I persuade anyone to think beyond what they already belive.

I know that no one laughs, cries, or has their lives changed because of what I write.

So…

How do you like it now, gentlemen?

I cannot find much to like.

Yet, I cannot kill the idealist within me.

After a quarter of a century, he refuses to die.

I continue to write because I want to make things better.

I am old enough to know my one voice is unlikely to make any difference.

But the idealist inside insists upon grabbing for that one chance in a hundred million.

Hell, it would be better if I wrote out of vanity, then I’d be willing to pimp my blog around instead of insisting upon it succeeding or more likely failing upon its own merits or lack thereof.

So, after two years and a bit over seven months and 1,477 posts I finally made 100,000 unique hits.

Little has changed.

There it is…

How do you like it now, gentlemen?

Technorati Tags: personal, random thoughts, weblogs